A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped by a Dragon spacecraft stood vertical at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida ahead of a launch reported by NASA on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The crew access arm has retracted, and the Dragon spacecraft's launch escape system was to be armed momentarily, according to the agency's blog post.

The escape system allows NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 members to escape safely in the unlikely event of an anomaly from the moment it is armed until they reach orbit, a span of roughly 12 minutes. Propellant loading was expected to begin shortly after the update.

Crew-13 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.